Bill Parcells open to coaching New Orleans Saints

View full sizeJohn O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerBill Parcells led the Giants to two Super Bowls rings and also coached the Jets.

If Bill Parcells decides to come out of retirement for a third time to coach the New Orleans Saints this season, it will be for one reason only.

"If this guy says to me, 'Bill, I need you to do this,' " Parcells said today in an interview with Newsday. "That's what friends are supposed to be for."

"This guy" refers to Saints coach Sean Payton, who is very close to Parcells and is considering whether to ask the former Giants, New England Patriots, Jets and Dallas Cowboys coach to fill in for him during his suspension for the 2012 season. Payton was suspended for not stopping the Saints' prohibited bounty program, which the NFL said was used extensively from 2009-11 as an enticement to knock players out of games.

Parcells, 70, said he has turned down two head-coaching opportunities since retiring from the Cowboys after the 2006 season, but he said this situation is different. "The thing with this one," he said, "it's a little more personal to me, because this is one of my guys."

Parcells hired Payton as an offensive assistant in 2003, and they spent three years together in Dallas before Payton became the Saints' coach in 2006.

Parcells met with Payton and Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who has been suspended for the first eight games next season, Tuesday near Parcells' home in Jupiter, Fla. Parcells said the Saints' job was not discussed specifically, and that he believed Payton wanted him to get to know Loomis. The two had never met.

"We literally did not talk about that job at all (Tuesday)," Parcells said. "The only thing he told me is, 'You're going to like this situation (in New Orleans).' I know a few of their players, just a couple."